DC day one

Years ago I walked the perimeter of the White House with Stan Sunshine at an NAW conference and remember being in awe of the vast structures and the consolidated power within this city.

Day one in DC proved to be extraordinary. After exiting the DC metro subway, which is very clean and far easier than the NY subway, we stood near the Navy memorial (pictured) and across the street from the National Archives. Being a couple that served the nation via the Navy; we naturally spent some time enjoying this exhibit and were struck not only by the exhibit, but by the homeless man that was doing his laundry in the fountain. He was unassuming and appeared to be a veteran or had at least served in the military as he was proud of his surroundings… makes one think.

Off to see the White House which was far less tranquil than my last experience, but stunning none the less. We gathered information on touring the White House which requires 6 months preplanning. We are in hopes to do that in the future.

Walking the streets of DC, being surrounded by stately structures that leave you feeling like the most powerful nation on earth made us a bit hungry so we stopped at a French patio café that was crazy good and the wine, as always was tasty.

Off to the Smithsonian Museum complex starting with the Natural History Museum. Again, pictures can’t describe this experience but trust us it is amazing. From the mammal exhibit to the unreal dinosaur hall you can’t even try to absorb the vast history this building allows. At one point it occurred to us that we had seen every living bird, mammal, dinosaur, bug, and whatever fish we have discovered. (The huge giant squid is a bit spooky)

We decided to take off for the day and head back. Tomorrow we hope to see the remainder of the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum…we hear they have simulated flights….Wahoo!

Pic uploads are a challenge here in DC so if they are slow to come please forgive us 16 in total

Indiana, Philly and some road trips

Sorry it has been so long since our last post. We are in Washington DC until Friday so we should have much more stuff to post.

Our visit in Elkhart was again great and started with an unplanned get together at the campground. We made a last min beef stew and visited with friends and family, in the rain….lots of fun. In all fairness I have to also point out that Freeman did cut (deeply) in to my prior winnings on the course.

We had some nice visits with Missy’s dad, Missy had lunch with Mom and Dad Perkins (sorry I missed that). Later we had the truck and fifth wheel serviced, thanks again Marc West and got to visit with TJ, Tristin, Cheryl and Bruce. Our visit concluded with a nice dinner with Kay and Gary.

Off to Philly to enjoy a delicacy we haven’t had since 1988 when we lived there, namely a Philly cheese steak. As we exited the interstate we were both trying to piece together our memories and although much has changed a remarkable amount has remained the same. The first thing we saw when we rounded the exit was the Bennigans that Missy worked at as the dinner cook for her second job. Just up the road was the Naval station (my first duty station) and across the street was a sight for sore eyes, Lees Hoagie House. In our estimation Lee’s is the best Cheese Steak in Philly, many would disagree but it was dinner for tonight. We turned down a familiar street in search of our first and second apartments. The second place we ever lived as a couple is pictured and far less luxurious then we remembered as a young couple. Our first apartment, complete with the screaming drunk couple below us was just as we remembered and although we wanted to get a picture we were sure the nice gentleman selling little bags of goods from his car was not in to the whole “say cheese” thing. Off to dinner, some say you can never go back but I am happy to say that Lee’s was exactly like we remember and still has our vote as the best Cheese Steak in Philly. Amazing walk down memory lane.

The trip to DC was largely uneventful but the Baltimore tunnel was impressive.

Much more to see this week, should have some great pics.

Road trip from Utah to Elkhart

The remainder of Utah was more amazing scenery including the red rocks. Then it got flat, had it not been for the world headquarters of Cabella's in NE and the worlds largest truck stop in IA we could have easily slipped in to a road noise coma. We took a bit of a side trip to WI and found a nice campground just south of Milwaukee for a couple days.

At last we arrived in Elkhart on Saturday and enjoyed a fun, unplanned get together around the campfire. I mixed together a quick beef stew as the head count continued to rise.

The pictures are as uneventful as the trip although we got Cheryl's Chicago skyline pics. We leave Thursday for Philly and hope to get more material for your viewing pleasure.

Salt Lake City and the road trip

First our apology to Bob Stevenson for not connecting with him while we were here. Time was unfortunately short.

What an unexpected joy the last couple days have been. Salt Lake City was expected to be an easy overnight trip with a two hour visit to Temple square and off heading east on our way back to Elkhart.

On Saturday we traveled through the salt flats outside of Salt Lake City. This is an area that is amazingly flat and white for as far as you can see. Obviously, an environment that was under water at some point but today it is just 40 miles of really unique landscape.

We landed in Salt lake City KOA, a nice park just outside the city and 10 min’s after we landed we were off to Temple square to do what tourist do. We were in awe of the structures and culture we encountered but as much with the hospitality and excitement of the members of the Mormon Church. We were very fortunate to be touring on the annual woman’s conference day (10’s of thousands of women) so the folks who normally give tours were at the conference. We were pleased when we discovered that our tour guides were three elders and all past Presidents of the church. They were admittedly rusty in giving tours but the information they had was absolutely amazing. It took us 2.5 hours to tour the beehive house (Brigham Young’s residence) which normally takes 20 mins but we got an education on the temple and culture that was no doubt rare. We were convinced after our 5 hours in Temple square that we would be fools to not stay to witness a live show by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir the following morning. What a great five hours!

We were up at 6:30, ohhh Missy loved that, dressed in our finest duds and off to the 9:30 live broadcast. It is completely indescribable to watch this show, in the Tabernacle no less, they only preform here in the off season. Glenn Beck was in the audience as were thousands of others we all enjoyed amazing music.

We got back in our camper duds and off to Wy. We entered the red rocks just out of the city and then an amazing and new site...... bright green rocks and mountains with green strips? We had not a clue what caused this color but suspected it was minerals. Missy met some folks in Wy that claim Scientist have said it is basically, ancient whale poop when this area was an ocean. I like the explanation and will dig to see if it is true but for now it sound reasonable.

Heading east

Reno and road trip in the Sierra range

Reno, actually Boomtown was saturated with bikers at what they claimed to be the third largest bike rally in the country. After hearing the numbers of bikes at Sturgis and the 105th we are skeptical if it was even approaching those levels. We saw some Hell’s Angels and a huge group of Henchmen, easily tens of thousands of bikes clearly having a blast.

We decided to spend the afternoon gambling, have a nice dinner at the resort and then go back to the casino for a fairly early evening as we planned to head east the following morning. The plan worked perfect except the early evening part. Great streaks on the craps table for both of us and some really odd luck at three card poker extended our evening past midnight.

Dinner was great, Missy rolling 6 points in craps with a table full of happy drunk bikers who affectingly referred to her as “come on honey one more number”. Who could ask for a nicer evening, what a blast.

The road trip through the Sierra range was very nice high desert mountains with sage brush in bloom. Enjoyable drive.

Off to Salt Lake City

Napa valley Sterling Vineyard

Napa valley was our chance to experience two things we really wanted to see, Sterling Vineyards and Napa style. We were unable to get to the latter but Sterling was great.

It started with a gondola ride to the top of the mountain where the vineyard was. We rode up with a charming older couple, the wife was scared to death of the ride but assure us it was worth it. We opted for the special reserve tasting, it was as expected the best wine thus far.

Ok here it goes, sigh… the 2002 cab, special reserve had notes of thyme and cherry while very smooth on the palette it was second (for Missy) to the 2005 Rutherford Cab with special flavors of blackberry an maple.

Six wines later we took the back way home, bad idea but really pretty. We are in awe of the quantity of roads in America that are crazy steep, windy and narrow.

Off to Reno.